Teaching German

Business

Suppliers fight for the Bundesliga

For European and American sporting goods manufacturers, Germany's national Bundesliga football league is an opportunity to rake in some serious cash. Each season, they do business worth millions of dollars.

Easy game for Adidas

It's hard not to start a conversation about the Bundesliga without mentioning FC Bayern. The club's kit is supplied by Adidas, which reportedly pays around 25 million euros ($27.9 million) a year to outfit the powerhouse team. While that may sound like a lot, it's only a quarter of what Adidas pays Manchester United for the same privilege.

A cool 5 million

The Herzogenaurach-based apparel maker gets an even better deal with the German football club Schalke 04. Adidas pays Schalke around 5 million euros for the right to provide its players with jerseys, shorts, socks and shoes.

The most powerful adversary...

...of FC Bayern in the Bundesliga is Borussia Dortmund. And since Adidas' main rival in Germany is Puma, it only makes sense that Borussia Dortmund gets its kit not from the brand with the three stripes, but the one with the leaping wild cat as its logo.

The American top dog

A total of six Bundesliga clubs - that's one in three - have signed contracts with Nike this season. Among them is RB Leipzig, a club that was founded with the help of a major energy drink manufacturer. (Guess what the RB stands for?) Such strong financial backing has certainly made life easier for the team's manager, Ralf Rangnick, a former Schalke trainer.

A wild, growing market

Not so long ago, Adidas and Puma divided the sports kit market among themselves. But now about half a dozen companies, including the smaller firm Jako, are competing for a piece of the pie. Jako supplies kits to the clubs Bayer Leverkusen and Darmstadt 98, though if some players' beards get any longer, Jako might not get the kind of brand visibility it's looking for.

Easy game for Adidas

It's hard not to start a conversation about the Bundesliga without mentioning FC Bayern. The club's kit is supplied by Adidas, which reportedly pays around 25 million euros ($27.9 million) a year to outfit the powerhouse team. While that may sound like a lot, it's only a quarter of what Adidas pays Manchester United for the same privilege.

A cool 5 million

The Herzogenaurach-based apparel maker gets an even better deal with the German football club Schalke 04. Adidas pays Schalke around 5 million euros for the right to provide its players with jerseys, shorts, socks and shoes.

The most powerful adversary...

...of FC Bayern in the Bundesliga is Borussia Dortmund. And since Adidas' main rival in Germany is Puma, it only makes sense that Borussia Dortmund gets its kit not from the brand with the three stripes, but the one with the leaping wild cat as its logo.

The American top dog

A total of six Bundesliga clubs - that's one in three - have signed contracts with Nike this season. Among them is RB Leipzig, a club that was founded with the help of a major energy drink manufacturer. (Guess what the RB stands for?) Such strong financial backing has certainly made life easier for the team's manager, Ralf Rangnick, a former Schalke trainer.

A wild, growing market

Not so long ago, Adidas and Puma divided the sports kit market among themselves. But now about half a dozen companies, including the smaller firm Jako, are competing for a piece of the pie. Jako supplies kits to the clubs Bayer Leverkusen and Darmstadt 98, though if some players' beards get any longer, Jako might not get the kind of brand visibility it's looking for.